Facebook Georgia political partisanship

Occurred: January 2021

Can you improve this page?
Share your insights with us

The Markup has found that partisan content quickly replaced news coverage when Facebook turned off a ban on political and social issue advertising in Georgia, USA. 

Having banned political sponsored advertising to minimise misinformation during the 2021 US presidential elections, Facebook turned off the feature before Georgians headed to the polls to vote on a run-off for two Senator seats.

The finding prompted researchers to express concerns about the power of Facebook's platform in a political context, the ease with which misinformation and disnformation can be weaponised, and the difficulty in understanding how it works without meaningful access to its system. 

Operator: Meta/Facebook

Developer: Meta/Facebook

Country: USA

Sector: Politics

Purpose: Review advertising

Technology: Advertising management system

Issue: Mis/disinformation
Transparency: Governance; Black box